ERIC EJ1141958: Tongue-Tied No More: Diversity Pedagogy and Sense of Place in the Learning Gardens

2015·3.2 MB·English

by  ERIC

Tongue-Tied No More: Diversity Pedagogy and Sense of Place
in the Learning Gardens
Dilafruz Williams, Portland State University, United States & Jennifer Anderson, Ashland
Park-Robbins, United States
Abstract
This case study explores what it is like for culturally and linguistically diverse
adolescents who are low-income English Language Learners to experience garden-
based education at their school’s Learning Gardens in southeast Portland, Oregon,
even as they and their families—driven from their homelands as immigrants and
refugees—try to establish roots and call Portland their new “home.” This is a story
of 16 sixth graders from seven countries for whom the Learning Gardens provide
context and milieu for expression of their connection to place as they grow food
and engage in significant ways in learning that encourage communication, cross-
ing the English language “barrier.” Students’ experiences and conversations are
captured as they develop a sense of belongingness, home, and place when connect-
ing with soil, food, nature, peers, and adults in the Learning Gardens.
Résumé
L’étude de cas examine la réalité d’adolescents de cultures et de langues différentes
en situation de faible revenu et d’apprentissage de l’anglais étant exposés à des
cours axés sur le jardinage aux Learning Gardens de leur école, dans le Sud-Est
de Portland, en Oregon, d’autant plus qu’ils tentent d’ancrer leurs racines (ce sont
des expatriés, des immigrants et des réfugiés) et de faire de Portland leur nouveau
chez-soi. Voici l’histoire de seize élèves de sixième année provenant de sept pays,
pour qui les Learning Gardens constituent un contexte et un milieu leur permettant
d’exprimer leur rapport au lieu, pendant qu’ils cultivent des aliments et se livrent
tangiblement à un apprentissage favorisant la communication, franchissant la soi-
disant barrière de la langue anglaise. Les expériences et les conversations de ces
élèves sont consignées à mesure qu’ils acquièrent un sentiment d’appartenance,
de résidence et de lieu lorsqu’ils entrent en contact avec la terre, la nourriture, la
nature, leurs collègues et les adultes des Learning Gardens.
Keywords: Learning Gardens, sense of place, cultural and linguistic diversity,
social justice, experiential learning, food-based and garden-based education,
English Language Learners
School Gardens and Diversity Pedagogy
“Who are these children that speak in tongues and live in fire? What happens to
them as they move through the educational system?” (Castaneda, 1996, p. 201)
Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 20, 2015 25
School garden programs are proliferating across most states and climate zones
in the United States and also in other countries (Blair, 2009; Williams & Dixon,
2013). There is heightened interest in local food production, driven by fear
over industrialized processed food, increasing obesity rates, type 2 diabetes,
and outbreaks of salmonella and E. Coli among other pathogens (Eisenmann,
Gundersen, Lohman, Garsky, & Stewart, 2011; Hedley et al., 2004; Vivian, Carrel,
& Becker, 2011), along with the sedentary modern lifestyle of children (Louv, 2005;
NCLI, 2009). A survey of the literature shows that gardens are promoted for a
multitude of educational purposes that include: academic learning; community
and parental involvement; environmental empathy and stewardship; food
literacy and healthy eating habits; motivation and engagement; personal, social,
and/or moral development; play and physical activity; and school bonding (Blair,
2009; Ozer, 2007; Williams & Dixon, 2013).
In fostering interdisciplinary learning (Ruiz-Gallardo, Verde, & Valdes, 2013),
intergenerational learning (Mayer-Smith, Bartosh, & Peterat, 2009), and multisen-
sory learning (Williams & Brown, 2012), school gardens are also active research
sites to explore their pedagogical contribution. With increasingly diverse popula-
tions that voluntarily or involuntarily move and relocate to areas beyond their
countries of birth, garden-based education provides opportunities for children and
youth to grow food and be connected to place (Cutter-Mackenzie, 2009; Mayer-
Smith et al., 2009). As Ableman (2005) states: “The process of growing food is
settling. It provides clear and immediate sense of how one’s actions affect the
world” (p. 181). Gardens, for him, “provide great metaphors for life, the circle of
birth and death made palpable because it is seen firsthand year after year. Work-
ing with the soil offers a sense of accomplishment and personal power” (p. 181).
If we consider eating to be a “cultural act” (Montanari, 2006), then gardens
at school sites provide a practical entry point to address the growing cultural di-
versity encountered in schools. For this, garden programs can draw upon diver-
sity pedagogy framed within concerns for social justice as students who try to
learn content in the dominant language are often challenged and at a disadvan-
tage performing on standardized tests (Gay, 2010; Neito, 2011; Sheets, 2005).
Research concurs that educators must adapt if English Language Learners are
to succeed in school. Effective diversity pedagogy views the natural connected-
ness of culture and cognition as key to linking the teaching-learning process
to diversity (Sheets, 2005). Diversity pedagogy has interconnected dimensional
elements that guide teachers, including: consciousness of difference, ethnic
identity development, social interaction and interpersonal relationships, safe
and inclusive classrooms, culturally responsive education, self-regulated learn-
ing, language usage, and self-evaluation. Visually capturing their experiences via
photographs and use of cameras as learning tools supports English Language
Learners in sharing their stories and experiences in profound ways (Raggl &
Schratz, 2004). By building meaningful bridges between home and school ex-
periences, the cultural heritage of different groups can be legitimized. In the
Learning Gardens Laboratory, in Portland, this connection is explored.
26 Dilafruz Williams & Jennifer Anderson
Learning Gardens and Lane Middle School
The Learning Gardens Laboratory (henceforth, Learning Gardens) is situated at a
13-acre site opposite Lane Middle School (Grades 6, 7, 8) in Portland, Oregon. It
was co-founded by the first author in 2004 through partnership among Portland
State University, Portland Public Schools, and the city of Portland. Serving multi-
cultural, low-income, outer southeast Portland neighbourhoods, the goals are to
meet the diverse learning needs of Lane youth and address health and food is-
sues in collaboration with university students through participatory exploration
of food-based and garden-based teaching and learning. Over the past decade,
interdisciplinary, multisensory, intergenerational, and multicultural garden cur-
riculum and instruction are offered to Lane students during the academic year.
Every week, six classes of 24-30 sixth grade students per class, come to the
Learning Gardens with their classroom science teacher for a 90-minute block.
Portland State University students manage the day-to-day maintenance of the
property; they integrate the science curriculum and Oregon standards for use
in the gardens as students rotate through various stations for a variety of topics,
engaging with garden-learning in small groups.
The garden serves as an extension of the Lane classroom. Students learn
about food through an integrated curriculum tied directly to the State standards.
Besides acquiring basic gardening and cooking skills, students discover their
ecological connections to the flora and fauna, study science with special focus
on botany and nutrition, learn to compost, create art, and share cultural stories
about food and gardening. Team building is fostered through collaborative
garden projects. While they are not graded for specific garden lessons, they
are graded for science by their teacher. An ongoing longitudinal study at the
Learning Gardens has shown an increase in students’ motivational engagement
(Skinner, Chi, & LEAG, 2012).
Reflecting the growing diversity in the neighborhood, Lane is culturally and
linguistically diverse: 15% Asian, 8% African American, 24% Hispanic, 3%
Native American, 4% multiple ethnicities, and 45% White. In 2010, more than
19 different languages were spoken at home and about 18% of the 420 students
were English Language Learners. In addition, 81% qualified for Free and Reduced
Lunch and 24% for Special Education, indicating low socio-economic status and
high special needs, respectively. The academic achievement gap has continued
to persist between racial minority groups and Whites and also for the English
Language Learners (Portland Public Schools, 2015). The second author focused
on teaching the English Language Learners identified by the school as such,
during each garden lesson. She was able to work with seven to nine students per
class assigned to her. For new immigrants and refugees, in particular, gardens
were venues where they could express themselves without feeling inadequate,
shy, and “tongue-tied,” as they often were in school.
Tongue-Tied No More 27
Methodology and Data Sources
By taking a closer look at how English Language Learners experienced garden-
based education at the Learning Gardens, we sought to better understand how
the diverse learning needs of this student population could be addressed. As a
garden educator and field researcher, the second author collaborated with other
university garden educators to plan and implement curriculum and instruction
attending to students’ needs. She has a teaching license with an English as a
Second Language endorsement. Social justice and diversity pedagogy were the
guideposts driving the Learning Gardens program.
An interpretive/constructivist paradigm was used for this qualitative case
study as the field researcher had an ongoing relationship as garden coordinator
with the students and teachers at Lane, and hence was a full participant. “A full
participant is simultaneously a fully functioning member of the ‘community,’
as well as researcher” (Mertler, 2012, p. 70). Because of this involvement, as
LeCompte and Schensul (1999) explain, the data were informed by the field
researcher’s “personal experience in interaction with the study participants”
(p. 59). Interpretivists also focus on the “stories told in the voices of many dif-
ferent people [and show] concern with what’s going on within and between
individuals” (LeCompte & Schensul, 1999, p. 49). For this study, students shared
their personal experiences through photographs, interviews, reflections, infor-
mal conversations, and Harvest of the Month projects.
Subject Recruitment
The sample for this study consisted of 16 sixth grade students identified by the
school as English Language Learners and assigned to the field researcher; eleven
were girls and five were boys. Seven of the students were born in Vietnam,
four were from Mexico, and the remaining students’ families had immigrated
from China, Estonia, Laos, Nicaragua, and Ukraine. They spoke Lao, Mandarin,
Russian, Spanish, Thai, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. Tuesday through Thursday,
two different classes spent approximately 90 minutes at the Learning Gardens.
Each visiting class was divided into three smaller groups distributed among the
Portland State University garden educators.
Data Sources
Data sources included: photographs taken by the field researcher and students
and their free-write responses, semi-structured interviews, student and field re-
searcher reflections, and Harvest of the Month collaborative projects. Over a
period of six months, each data source added a rich, intricate layer to our under-
standing of English Language Learners’ garden experiences.
Photographs. Three cameras were given to English Language Learners
during their garden visits to document what was most important to them.
28 Dilafruz Williams & Jennifer Anderson
Photographic images are quick, inexpensive, information-rich, digital, and evoc-
ative, according to Thorp (2006). Not only do photographs help recall details, but
visual images “encourage readers to take a closer look at the small social worlds
of our inquiry. Visual imagery adds a layer of complexity to our texts and rep-
resentations pointing to specific moments of human interaction” (Thorp, 2006,
p. 128). The students took photographs to visually document their experiences,
with no more than three students sharing a camera over several months to
take photographs of what they found to be interesting in the gardens. Visu-
ally based research techniques provide data not available via language-centered
procedures (Raggl & Schratz, 2004). With the photographs, students created a
collaborative photo-journal for their classroom in which they “told their story.”
Students interpreted and explained the meaning and context of each photo-
graph by responding to the following prompts, referred to by the acronym SAY:
S: What do you see?
A: What is actually happening? What activity is going on? What is the lesson
about?
Y: Connect to you. Why is this moment important for you? How do you feel
about it?
Semi-structured interviews. Toward the end of the term, semi-structured
interviews were conducted with the English Language Learners in the garden
individually for 10-15 minutes each, to record their final reflections. A poster
collage of photographs representing a range of garden activities was presented
to them and a photo elicitation technique was used to stimulate memories,
thoughts, and feelings. Open-ended prompts encouraged discussion: If you were
to tell your family about the Learning Gardens, what would you say? How do
you feel about the Learning Gardens? What have you learned? What will you
remember most? How is this garden experience different than the rest of your
classes at Lane?
Harvest of the Month project. For their Harvest of the Month projects,
students were asked: “If you could pick any vegetable to be Harvest of the Month,
what would you pick?” They connected their Harvest of the Month project to
their home and culture. This activity is captured in the data analysis section.
Informal conversations/Unstructured prompts/Observations. In order
to build trust and relationship, informal conversations with students allowed
for rich, personalized information to be captured by the field researcher during
students’ self-reflections. She also recorded her observations.
Data Analysis and Findings
Triangulation, an aspect of research credibility, was used during analysis. Data
were coded with elements of diversity pedagogy serving as a framework.
Responses were clustered under three broad areas (see Figure 1): (a) Social
Relationships and Safe and Inclusive Setting/Place; (b) Culturally Responsive
Tongue-Tied No More 29
Instruction (that included connections to food, culture, and language), as also
seen in the Harvest of the Month Projects; and, since multiple senses were used
in the gardens that triggered students’ food memories of home, we also used
the category of (c) Experiential and Multisensory Learning. These align with
diversity pedagogy and, collectively, these experiences helped students with
developing a sense of place. As students bonded with one another and with
place, they called the Learning Gardens “safe” as it felt “like home.” For each
key area, the analysis section presents a sample of activities and observations to
contextualize and ground the discussion of data.
Figure 1. Sense of place in the Learning Gardens
Social Relationships, Safe and Inclusive Setting/Place
Activities
One day, when students entered the garden, they immediately set to work in
the soil. Stepan1 (from Estonia) hurried ahead to his plot, wearing gloves. The
students started by forking, raking and weeding, working meticulously to pre-
pare their garden beds. Leah and Val (from Vietnam), Carina (from Mexico), and
Lidiya (from Ukraine) ventured off to dig up the daughters of strawberry plants
and relocate them into their group bed. Carina and Val carefully transplanted the
strawberries into the soil and watered them deeply. Students photographed the
entire process, zooming in on the little plants for a close-up (see Figure 2). Next,
30 Dilafruz Williams & Jennifer Anderson
they planted carrots and radish seeds with Kim (from Vietnam) joining them.
They agreed to add sorrel, since Lidiya shared, “we also grow this at home in
Ukraine.”
Figure 2. Student taking photograph
On another occasion, Stepan and Truc (from Vietnam) were focused on
building a pea trellis and felt valued. Truc began to speak more, talking of family,
hard work, struggles, worries, and joys. Interactions like these were common.
Students often cooperated, problem-solved, and learned with partners or in
small groups as they engaged in garden activities. For English Language Learn-
ers, the significance of working collaboratively in the garden went deeper. In
response to the question, “What do the Learning Gardens mean to you?” the
students offered these insights:
We work as a team…10 or 20 years from now, I will remember the Learning Gar-
dens. How we worked as a team in our groups in our gardens. (Artem)
What I feel about the Learning Gardens is that I’m taking care of something with
everyone else. You learn to work together. It is a time to bond with friends. (Gabriela)
Lucia (from Vietnam), Gabriela (from Mexico), and Mei (from China) shared
grade-school memories working in their garden bed. Minh (from Vietnam)
Tongue-Tied No More 31
anguished over her struggles in school, claiming to be “not smart” and “not
knowing much English.” Their home languages were different: Carina and
Gabriela spoke Spanish. Mei spoke Mandarin, and she shared: “English is hard
to learn.” Gabriela often switched between Spanish and English and talked
about planting with her father: “We planted tomatoes, cherry tomatoes.” She
demonstrated how to plant the tomato start, gently handling the roots, separating
the fine threads and placing them into the hole she had created, stating: “Dad
says to keep the dirt with the plant. It’s full of nutrients.” She felt empowered
as she had a talent to share and here she was the expert. They worked together
planting in the soil as they selected another large tomato plant and added peas,
beans, and pepinos (cucumbers). Sheets (2005) explains that:
…peer relationships and friendship connections allow students to develop social
competence. Curricular content incorporating friendship as a basic component pro-
vides students with multiple experiences to enjoy and benefit from their friendship
choices. If the classroom is racially diverse, these social opportunities can also pre-
pare them to function competently with cross-race peers. (p. 72)
The data confirm the importance of peer and social relationships. Place memories
were strengthened through activities with peers (see Figure 3). Truc summed it up
best, saying: “I will remember the people that I worked with, how we got along.”
In their photo-voice, Mei shared: “I feel peace. I see friendship. I see that we can
help harvest and love,” and similarly Lidiya stated: “I am making new friends.”
Figure 3. Preparing garden beds
32 Dilafruz Williams & Jennifer Anderson
Allowing students’ cultural, emotional, and social expressions helped them
feel valued and included. Several English Language Learners confirmed this in
their interviews. Minh, a recent Vietnamese immigrant, shared her impressions
of the Learning Gardens: “It’s like I’m a member. I’m home. I’m safe. I’m com-
fortable. They help me do what I need to do.” Gabriela expressed a similar senti-
ment: “I feel like I am at home.” In Diversity Pedagogy: Examining the Role of
Culture in the Teaching-Learning Process, Sheets (2005) elucidates the elements
of a culturally safe context: “a classroom environment where students feel emo-
tionally secure; psychologically consistent; and culturally, linguistically, academi-
cally, socially, and physically comfortable, both as individuals and as members
of the groups to which they belong” (p. 84). This was reflected in Mei’s com-
ments: “No one is judging me for who I am. It is a circle of life, of friendship,”
and in Gabriela’s increasing confidence: “I feel safe and healthy…and I love to
see all the green fresh vegetables and fruits.” Other compelling testimonials to
the safe climate of the garden were found in the students’ reflections:
I feel Learning Garden has helped me feel more comfortable with expressing myself
and being able to be who I want to be. I feel good and safe. It’s a fun place. (Carina)
To me it is a special place…where you can go when you are sad because it helps get
you happy. You can also find some peace and you can relax yourself. Let pressure
go away. (Val)
The English Language Learners felt they each had unique backgrounds and life
experiences that were special. “[L]earning is about building knowledge together
with others and as one interacts with textually rich contexts,” writes Rahm
(2010, p. 33). To the students, the gardens provided text and safe context for
learning. Similar to Rahm’s calling, the English Language Learners in this study
were “genuinely interested to make sense of their situations and to create their
own understandings when engaged in meaningful science activities” (Rahm,
2010, p. 33). The Learning Gardens served as a safe, nurturing environment for
students to build friendships and relationships as they connected with growing
food and interacted with one another.
Experiential and Multisensory Learning in Place
You feel it, hear it, touch it. Instead of looking at a book, you actually work and try
to plant a plant. (Keola)
Activities
Through holistic, student-centered activities, the Learning Gardens provided un-
limited opportunities for English Language Learners to interact with plants and
place. Using not only intellect but also their hands, heart, and senses, the Lane
students explored, inquired, wondered, observed, discovered, and tried tasting
Tongue-Tied No More 33
Figure 4. Student focused on planting
students explored, inquired, wondered, observed, discovered, and tried tast-
ing new things as this scenario conveys: students were given a 25-square foot
piece of land to cultivate beds and grow food. Putting their collaborative skills to
practice, they designed, dug, planted, and cared for their garden together. They
removed rocks and bark chips, raked, forked, broke up mud clods, turned in
cover crops, and pulled weeds. The English Language Learners worked steadily
and enthusiastically (see Figure 4). As soon as their tools hit the soil, they began
to talk, to connect, to discover. They felt comfortable enough to communicate
their thoughts, feelings, and struggles about school, friends, home, and life. Con-
necting to the Learning Gardens, they were fascinated by the abundance of
worms and centipedes they found in the soil. One day they sampled Asian pears
from the orchard. Keola told of a similar variety found in his native country of
Laos. Truc shared her favourite way to enjoy the fruit, with salt, pepper, and a
little bit of sugar. Minh nodded, “I eat it like that too.” For her, English language
was very new.
Learning Gardens “are naturally rich sites for sensory engagement, as
they are filled with fragrant blossoms, thorny and prickly vines, delicious fruit,
rustling leaves, and colorful flowers” (Williams & Brown, 2012, p. 146). The
data confirmed the importance of hands-on, multisensory experiences. English
Language Learners found pleasure in being active outdoors: digging, planting,
harvesting, weeding, mulching, tasting, touching, smelling, eating, and cooking.
34 Dilafruz Williams & Jennifer Anderson